Chapter Sixteen: Having Ability is Called Self-Confidence

  The next morning, Kim Min-hee moved the daily necessities she had bought in the city yesterday afternoon to Tongmu's house. The car was unusually quiet, with Go Seung-gi still sleeping on the side, Lee Chaeu sitting in the back seat looking out at the fields by the roadside, and Choi Soo-young sitting in the front seat, her hair tied up in two ponytails, neatly combed over her shoulders, tightly attached to her neck, covering her collarbone, stuck to her T-shirt, silent...

  They arrived at the house, which had been of great interest to them when they first came. Kim Min-hee and Lee Choo were busy moving their belongings, and Ko Sung-il also got out of the car to help. However, Choi Soo-young did not get out of the car, but instead looked through the rearview mirror at Lee Choo's busy figure, her heart thinking who-knows-what...

  After bidding farewell to the two elderly people, Kim Min-hee took Choi Soo-young and Ko Seung-gi into the car and returned to Tokyo, leaving only Lee Choo alone at Fujimori's house. Even after the car had disappeared from view, Choi Soo-young still did not bid farewell to Lee Choo.

  It's just a week, and we can meet again after a week! Since we can meet, why say goodbye? Choi Soo-young relaxed her tense face, turned back to look at the rearview mirror, and looked at Kim Min-hee. "Min-hee uncle, in a week, Autumn brother will return to Tokyo, right?"

  "Is it?" I hope he can't come back

  "Haha!"

  ……

  With the help of Tōnoki Masaru, Li Qiu finished decorating the room and it was almost noon. Yamaguchi Mireiko had already started cooking, while Tōnoki Masaru entered a very spacious laboratory inside the house - although it was called a laboratory, it didn't seem like one. There were many formalin bottles with specimens that Li Qiu didn't recognize, as well as some instruments, including an ultrasound device and a simple operating table. Li Qiu was curious about how such a room could have such a laboratory, but he wasn't nosy, so after standing at the door for a while, watching Tōnoki Masaru's busy figure, he returned to the front gate and sat down on the stairs.

  The sun that has slowly entered the summer is already starting to feel scorching, but the lush trees near the house and the greenery on the walls make one feel none of that heat. The cool breeze, the refreshing air, makes one feel extremely comfortable - living here would purify one's soul.

  About an hour later, lunch began. A young boy was very quiet, while two old people were like they didn't take him as an adult, every day saying sweet nothings to each other. Half a century of being together through thick and thin had made Tōmoku Shō and Yamaguchi Mirei ignore any worldly gaze, loving each other just meant loving each other, sweetness was just sweetness, without age or environmental restrictions. Isn't the most romantic thing in the world growing old hand in hand?

  After dinner, Tonomura Katsu continued to enter his laboratory, while Li Qiu was taken by Yamaguchi Mirei into a very large but seemingly narrow room filled with a special fragrance, the scent of paper or what is called book fragrance. The room had bookshelves about 4 meters long and 2 meters high, two walls each had two rows, one wall only had one row but it was longer than the others, in the middle there were eight rows, together there were thirteen such bookshelves very clean, not even a speck of dust, neatly arranged books, signs of frequent reading, an armchair leaning against the window.

  "Sit down." Yamauchi Mireiko sat on the chaise longue, let out a comfortable sigh, and pointed to the chair beside her, saying in Korean.

  Li Qiu looked back at the bookshelf, those thick books, sat in a chair, lowered his head, facing Yamaguchi Mirei.

  "Min He said you're amazing, where do you think you're amazing?"

  "Personality, understanding."

  "Oh? What's your personality like? How amazing is your understanding?"

  "Has a strange personality, understands uniquely."

  "How much time would it take you to read through all these books?" Yamaguchi Mireiko asked lightly, pointing at the bookshelves that lined the entire room.

  "A lifetime is not enough to read them all." There are too many books here, each bookshelf is packed tightly, only the long row of bookshelves has some space. So many books, wanting to read through them, even giving someone a hundred years may not be enough! Here needs to be explained, what is called "through", can reciting it be considered as reading through? No, understanding what the author wants to write in a book, and then finding out what you want to get from what the author writes, that's what counts as reading through. These books are not textbooks, textbooks have cyclical and progressive knowledge, these books don't have it that easy, like textbooks teaching you how to read...

  "Not bad, you think you can read through a few books within a year, just like the content of this book." Yamaguchi Mireiko handed over a not-so-thick but very profound book from the desk next to her, titled "The Angle of Beauty".

  Li Qiu took the book, opened it, and saw dense English letters. She only understood some of them. "If you teach me by my side, I can finish this book in a year, including school English. If I study alone, it will take five years to finish this book, including self-study English and reading other books."

  "Hmph! Are you proud of yourself? This book, the author wrote it very obscurely, the content ranges from astronomy to geography, history to war. Reading this book without a lot of foundation is basically very difficult to understand the content. Yamaguchi Mirei read this book for many years and still only considers herself familiar with it, not having reached the level of mastery."

  "Having the ability is called confidence, lacking it is called arrogance! I have confidence and motivation." Of course, Li Qiu didn't know the specific content of this book, he just found that the book covers a lot of content through some English words, but he has confidence that he can read through this book.

  "What a 'capable and confident' person! I'd like to see what you're capable of. It ends here today, starting tomorrow, I'll give you a test! If you pass, I'll teach you, if not, even if Kim Min-hee comes begging again, it's useless!"

  "Well, I'll go first." Li Qiu glanced at the books beside her that were overflowing with fragrance, walked out of the study and headed towards her own room.

  After Li Qiu left the room, Yamaguchi Mirei turned her face to look out the window. Her silver hair shone brightly in the sunlight, "It's really a very interesting child, I hope you can hold on, it's been a long time since I've been so interested. Looking forward to tomorrow, come quickly, this old bone is about to rot..."

  Li Qiugang had just come out of the study when he saw Tongmu Sheng sitting on a stone chair outside, holding a colorful parrot in his hand, frowning as if thinking about something. From time to time, he would tease the parrot, staring at its neck, and then open the parrot's beak to examine its mouth carefully. Occasionally, he would make some strange noises himself. The reason why Tongmu Sheng made strange noises was that the sounds he made were somewhat similar to the parrot's cries, but for some reason, the sounds were accompanied by some ear-piercing noise.

  Li Qiu walked for a while before heading to his own room. Li Qiu's room was located in a deeper part of the house, and it had already been set up. In this kind of rural dwelling, people didn't sleep on beds; at night, they would spread out mats on the floor, cover themselves with quilts, and go to sleep. Li Qiu's room lacked nothing, except for one thing - a poster of Lee Hyori, which he had specifically asked Kim Min-hee to buy in town yesterday afternoon. Kim Min-hee had run around all afternoon visiting audio-visual stores before finally finding one small poster, roughly the size of a book.

  "Sister, shall we begin? This is your way, isn't it?"

  The afternoon sun is dazzling.

  ……

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